COMMENT OF THE DAY: REPORT FROM THAT NEIGHBORHOOD SOUTH OF THE RIVER OAKS SHOPPING CENTER THAT NOBODY KNOWS WHAT TO CALL “Who says this is going to be townhouses? This is my neighborhood. While there are certainly plenty of townhouses in the area, the overall trend has moved decidedly toward single family homes. As I type, there are at least a half dozen new single family homes under construction within a few blocks of this site. While this house appears to be quite nice, I’m guessing whatever replaces it will be much nicer. I know it’s standard operating procedure for Swamplotters to hate everything new, but the single family homes (and even the townhouses) being built in this neighborhood are typically quite nice. This demo is more the exception than the rule. Most of what gets torn down around here is garbage.” [Bernard, commenting on Tiny Done-Up Woodhead Cottage Is Townhome Fodder]
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Tag: Townhomes
This cozy little white-picket-fenced 1,224-sq.-ft. cottage on Woodhead north of Fairview went on the market just as the holiday weekend began. But already “developers are swarming with offers and not even looking at the home and gardens,” a source tells Swamplot. Why bother, when the 1930 home sits on a 5,000-sq.-ft. corner lot along Welch St., just 4 blocks south of the River Oaks Shopping Center? New driveways away! But . . . okay, what would $369,500 would buy here?
Actual trees are still standing in the Magnolia Grove lot where that live-oak clearance event began last month. What’s left: A little street mustache lining Feagan St., between Snover and Jackson Hill. The reader who sent these photos — and says she appreciates “raw” local real-estate news — wants to know what’s going in.
These are probably the last images you’ll see of two large oak trees on the 4200 block of Feagan, says the reader who snapped pix this morning of the clearance event that’s been going on there for the last few days. There’ll be no designing around them, apparently: A worker on the property “said he hated to do it but both remaining oaks were coming down.” Coming in, gathers the reader: maybe 28 new townhomes between Dickson and Feagan St., just west of Jackson Hill. “Numerous smaller oaks, pecans, hackberries that are now crunched on the ground” were hacked away earlier.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WORKS EVEN BETTER WHEN YOUR NEIGHBORS STUFF THEIR TOWNHOUSES WITH FOAM PEANUTS “I live in a 3 story townhome (2800 sq ft., shared walls, middle unit, north-facing) and the pleasant surprise for me has been the utility bills. July/August/September (bills since 2008) – no more than $140/month (@ ~.10/kw). Electrical bill drops down to <$100 in the winter. Since I have shared walls, the units on either side of me act as additional insulation for me.” [Terry, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Dramatic Entry]
- 3102 Soutine St. [HAR]
- Previously on Swamplot: The Modigliani: Gated, and Very Close to the Med Center
- 2314 Waugh Dr. [HAR]
- 2827 Pease St. [HAR]
Workers are dismantling the two half-built-and-holding townhomes at the corner of Jackson Hill and Washington Ave., says the reader who sends us these photos of the activity at the well-known and well-weathered properties. Demolition permits for 915 and 917 Jackson Hill showed up on Swamplot earlier this week. “No bulldozers or anything, looks like they’re disassembling them from the top down,” explains our tipster. Could this be the dawn of . . . a brand-new parking lot for Washington?
COMMENT OF THE DAY: MOVING FOR KIDS “. . . You obviously aren’t part of the “younger†generation. As a part of the mid-upper end, I can attest that the allure of townhomes wanes around the time the first child starts walking. [It’s] a pain to haul everything up and down the stairs and keep a kid from tumbling down. Heights and the close in ‘burbs like Oak Forest, Garden Oaks, Braes Heights, Westbury are appealing to many because they are closer in-town. I’m surprised no one has figured out how to clean up Sharpstown yet. No one wants to spend alot of time in their car.” [justguessin, commenting on This Draft of Changes to the Preservation Ordinance Is Different, Somehow]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WE’RE ALL INTRUDERS HERE “Now, if I lived next to it . . . I would be vocally opposing it based on its proximity to me, but I have to say, those of you living near its proposed location were on the WalMart end not too long ago, changing the quality of life for many of your neighbors with your big stucco three and four story homes going in next to small bungalows. So, while you are throwing stones, you might want to consider that in the not so distant past those stones were being thrown at you.” [EMME, commenting on Y’All Can Discuss the West End Walmart on Your Own]
Liking the views you’ve seen of the new Walmart coming to the former Trinity Industries steel fabrication property at Yale and Koehler in the West End? Well, one of them could be yours! A few more of those front-row townhouses lining the property’s southern edge will soon be available, reports 11 News reporter Shern-Min Chow.
“Sitting on the couch to the fence line is roughly 55 feet,” brags Anne Marie Leahey, who says she’ll be selling her 1,167-sq.-ft. townhome on Center Plaza Dr. soon. Chow sounds impressed:
Her home is beautiful. The inside is stunning. As she pulled the bay window curtains back, it was clear the view outside would also be eye-catching. Her home looks out directly onto the site of the new Walmart.
Leahey, a Bonner Street Homeowners Association board member, was already thinking about moving before she heard of the new development, but has since decided to relinquish her home now instead of waiting. That’ll give some more dedicated Walmart fan a chance to enjoy the complete construction process from close range. She tells Chow she regularly gets calls from neighbors asking her if they should move, too.
Got a question about something going on in your neighborhood you’d like Swamplot to answer? Sorry, we can’t help you. But if you ask real nice and include a photo or 2 with your request, maybe the Swamplot Street Sleuths can! Who are they? Other readers, just like you, ready to demonstrate their mad skillz in hunting down stuff like this:
We’ve got some answers to your questions:
- Downtown: The mystery of the missing Houston Pavilions signs (shown — or rather, not shown — above) is solved . . . in rather unexciting fashion. The development’s management office explains the lettering is being painted, and should be reinstalled in short order.
- Bellaire: Noting that other lots just west of Bellaire High School have a similar shape and size, subprimelandguy provides a matter-of-fact explanation for the triple-deep lots on the south side of Maple St.:
Mimosa (and the adjacent smaller lots on the south side of Maple) ends short of the Loop simply because that was the edge of the Bellaire Oaks subdivision when it was developed in the 50’s. The larger lots are in a different subdivision likely developed by a different developer, and of course at that time the Loop didn’t exist for Mimosa to extend out to.
None of you took the bait on the reader’s second question: Should a triple-size lot always command a triple-size price?
And what about that monument to eternal redevelopment at the corner of Washington and Jackson Hill?
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY THE BANK WON’T FINISH BUILDING THOSE TOWNHOUSES “. . . the bank would rather take the loss than become builders. The law in Texas puts certain long term responsibilities on the builder and the banks don’t want to get into it. I’ve talked to a few banks about finishing, or at least drying in, some of them and for them it’s cheaper to let them rot and write them off than to prolong the process and get financially deeper into a project that will probably never turn a profit. That money is making them +5.5% profit now if they invest it elsewhere, which over a very short amount of time, more than makes up for the loss. Bankers care about money not urban blight.” [SCD, commenting on Swamplot Price Adjuster: Some Unfinished EaDo Business]
Got an answer to any of these reader questions? Or just want to be a sleuth for Swamplot? Here’s your chance! Add your report in a comment, or send a note to our tipline.
- Downtown: A reader wants to know why the backlit signage that used to be attached to those fancy Houston Pavilions multi-story hole-in-the-middle bridges over Fannin and San Jacinto streets Downtown is — gone! “You can see the remains of little black studs that supported the letters. Probably not a big deal at all, just something I noticed the last couple of trips [and] thought I would share.”
- Bellaire: From just outside the Loop, we have interest in the “extremely long residential lots” on the south side of Maple St., just east of S. Rice Blvd. (Map here.) Each property, bounded by a storm drain to the south, is the equivalent of 3 lots deep, a curious reader notes. And asks: “1) Why does Mimosa end before W. Loop? 2) Is a triple lot property 3x the value of single lot? What shapes their value?”
One more puzzle for you to solve:
